Welcome

This Sunday concludes the Octave of Easter. An octave is a celebration of eight days in the Church and each day is honored liturgically in the same way as the day in which the octave began, in this case Easter Sunday. With the liturgical reforms of the late 60’s and early 70’s, only two octaves remain in the ordinary form of the Church’s liturgical calendar: the octaves of Easter and Christmas. While the octave may be finishing, the joy of the Easter Season continues on. I wish to thank all those who helped with our liturgical celebration of the Easter Triduum. The Gospel for this weekend, the Second Sunday of Easter, is popularly known as the Gospel of Doubting Thomas. Here our Lord appears to Thomas, and the other ten Apostles, and invites Thomas to see and probe his wounds so that Thomas might believe that the Lord is truly risen and that he is who he says he is. While the Lord’s body has been changed and glorified, the wounds from his crucifixion remain. Theologians have marveled over this reality for 2,000 years and posed various reasons as to why. As in the case of St. Thomas the Apostle, the wounds identify the Lord for who he is and they also tell us what death is not; death is no longer an eternal reality for those who live and die in God’s friendship. The marks of the Lord’s death remain, but death has no power over him, and through him neither over us. St. Leo the great says it more eloquently in a homily on the Lord’s Passion: He did away with the everlasting character of death so as to make death a thing of time, not of eternity . As we continue our journey through this Easter Season, let us turn to the risen Lord to draw newness of life from him, remembering that the wounds and the scars of our present lives, painful as they may be, are only things of the here and now; in the Resurrection on the last day, when Christ makes us new, those things will be no more. Triduum and Easter Masses – Thank you! I am immensely grateful to all those who helped to make our Masses for Triduum and Easter Sunday so beautiful. Many thanks to our choir members and musicians, to our environment team, to our readers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, ushers, servers (who did very well with a unique set of rituals), and to all who came to worship. I hope that our Lord was pleased with the worship that we offered to Him during those most sacred days. I also want to offer a special welcome to our seven neophytes in our parish school who were fully initiated into the Church at the Easter Vigil through the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Communion. Let us continue to pray for them as the Lord enfolds them with grace and presence in their lives. Thank you also to Deacon Scott and those who helped to prepare them for their initiation. Divine Mercy Sunday Devotions This Sunday, April 7 th , is Divine Mercy Sunday. As in years past, the Cathedral is hosting the culmination of the Divine Mercy Novena with the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, opportunity for Confessions, and Eucharistic exposition from 2PM to 3PM. All are welcome! Easter Wisdom We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery - the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. “We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!” - Pope St. John Paul II during his Apostolic Visit to Australia – November 30, 1986. Blessings of Easter joy & peace to you and yours for the week ahead! Father Chris House